U.S. Airways flight 2596 isolated at Reagan after security issue

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - The grounding of flights Sunday at Washington Reagan Airport was prompted by a woman who told an Ohio airport worker that she had received a message from God about a bomb aboard an airplane, the director of Dayton's airport said.

Emergency vehicles surround U.S. Airways Flight 2596 at National Airport as the FBI, TSA, and FAA investigate the threat of a bomb on board the flight from Dayton, Ohio. Photo: Brandis Friedman/ABC7

No explosives were found aboard the jet that flew from Dayton International Airport to Reagan, but the threat shut down the airport for about 20 minutes, the FBI said.

The woman indicated that she had received a message from God and "told the ticket-counter agent that the flight had to turn around because there was a bomb on it and people were going to die or something to that effect," Terrence Slaybaugh, director of the Dayton airport, told the Dayton Daily News.

The 54-year-old woman from Shelbyville, Ky., has a history of mental illness and told officials she was driving around in her car when she arrived at the Dayton airport, Slaybaugh told the newspaper. Slaybaugh was out of town Monday and did not immediately return telephone and e-mail messages from The Associated Press.

The woman, whose name was not released, was taken to a mental health facility, FBI officials said. No criminal charges have been filed, FBI Special Agent Michael Brooks told The Associated Press on Monday.

The woman's car was searched, but nothing unusual was found, Slaybaugh said.

US Airways Flight 2596 landed around 1 p.m. at the airport just outside Washington, its original destination, and authorities interviewed the 44 passengers, the FBI said.